Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-02-25
THE M DOCTOR.
The Cold-Ah- Cure.

The benefits Of cool air are not universally
appreciated. A good many people are afraid
OF it, especially at night, shutting themselves
in close bedrooms, whore their systems are
poisoned and their constitutions gradually I'M
dermined by breathing the bad air. And even
hot or warm air that is pure, air in aroom that
has ventilation as we'll as heat, is facilitating
where breathed all night
The evidence that pulmonary complaints are
inevitably and exclusively caused by foul in
door air, and cured by pure, especially bycold,
pure, outdoor air, can grow convincing to a
degree almost affective to q philanthropist,
who most often feels like a traveller seeing
his companions cropping in the gloom Of o
subterranean labyrinth, and refusing to fol-
low the clew that has led hin back to the
sunshine OF the upper world. The remedial
influence of fresh air is 80 much increased
by q low temperature that "colds' are, in fact,
far moro durable in midwinter than in mid
summer
l was shot through the lungs in Mexico,
and have ever since been susceptible to the
contaglon of q @~catarrh factory" as a friend
and meeting houses of our country towns.
In warm weather l avoid such man-traps as
/ would the pit of o gas we'll, but in winter I
risk their infection in the assurance that its
influence can be counterac:ed by an extra
dose of ice air. On returning from a crowded
omnibus, etc, l remove my bed to the
| draught side of the house and opea a win
dow to the full capacity of it's mechanism,
taking care to go to sleep facing the draught
my hair grizzled with hoar frost, but without
the slightest vestige Of the catarrh which had
announced it's approach the night before.
Cold is an sntiseptic and a powerful diges-
tive stimulant; and l here record the predic-
ton that the hospitals of the future will be
icehouses. Dyspepsia, catarrh, and fevers Of
all kinds can be frozen out Of the system. Not
by letting the patient shiver in a snowbank,
but by giving him an extra allowance of warm
| bedclothing, with the additional luxury Of
cumstances, becomes as preferable to hot mi
asma as cold spring water to warm ditch
water. / have also found that the best brain
work can be done in q cold room, and that
stove-heat has q tendency to stulufy like q
narcotic beverage. Warm wraps make hres
tolerably dispensable.
With regard to diet, where it is limited to
natural food there is no danger of eating too
much. Where stimulants and highly seasoned
foods are eaten, it is q different matter. A
wholesome food without fear Of overstepping
the proper limits. But the man with an I'M
natural appetite, the one who stimulates and
lives high, is always overlapping them, and
is never satisfied. A child instinctively turns
with disgust from the. CORY carcasses of q
slaughter-house; but who ever heard Of q
%youngster 'shuddering at, eight Of . honey
comb, or q nest full Of oggag.. l can rarely eat
meat Of any kind without paying the penalty
in . feeling OF the gastric distress, followed by
. more or less distinct nausea and troubled
dreams. But the closest observation has
never enabled me to notice such symptoms IS
an after-efect of an omeaeto or q piece of bread
and butter.
The sweltering noon is not Q favorable time
for repletion, nor is the early morning, when
the energies OF the system should not be IN
duly m~onopo!ized by the work of digestion. A
hearty breakfast handicaps q worker for the
rest of the forenoon. OF all the wretched
slaves of conventional abuses the most to be
pitied are those who have to bolt their dinners
in a minimum of time and hasten back to their
drudgery, and often to . temperature that
must tempt them to barter q week of their
lives for one hour of undisturbeu sleep. A
light breakfast and late dinner surprisingly
ease the burden Of the hottest working day.
I never take q MONDAY lunch, and in special
exigencies a sort of instinct has often prompt
ed me to dispense with my regular breakfast,
too, and go to work after chewing up o frac-
ton of a hard crust or a couple of dried
prunes.
Early rising, carried to extremes, impairs
the vitality. would as soon rob a child Of
it's food or its clothing as to deprive it of
sleep in the morning hours when digestion is
finished and dreams become sweet. For or
phans, a. I know from experience, dream
land excursions are often for years the best
refuge from the realities Of Christian ~civiliza-
ton. DR.. OSWALD, IN the Herald Of HeanA